Justin Van Kleeck, the writer of this article, asks
everyone to answer a question that many do not want to deal with: "When
you look at an animal, what do you see?" Van Kleeck wants each of us to
look deep down into our hearts and soul and truly confront what we feel
toward animals. He says, "I see a mystery, a miracle, a manifestation of
life. I see the magic of a living being going about its essential task
of living, of being what it is by nature. I see something so precious
that for me to make it suffer, or even worse to take its life (directly
or indirectly), would be the highest act of selfishness. With or without
a god to judge, I feel within myself the destructiveness of doing harm
and the disrespect of using others for my own welfare.

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When you look at an animal, what do you see?.